Women – Women

Women exist somewhere that is nowhere, and they're apparently going to be huge. Or something. Underground-huge. Cryptic and spindly and slanted and enchanted and inverted and noisy and warm and fuzzy and lo-fi and subtle. And everywhere, and nowhere all at once. Where are these songs even happening? The titles all so suburban and forgettable, and its impossible to tell how many members they have playing or even singing at any one time. Half of the songs seem like extended no-place guitar workouts recorded in a hole in someone's garage. And its fucking brilliant by the way.I think there is still a latent tendency malignant in some people to think that lo-fi isn't quite "doing things properly"- same with technical skill on one's instrument(s), but the production on Women is a work of perfect art, precision-engineered to creep perfectly through the hiss, like all the tapes have been damaged and bits of the songs taken away, but not in a Times New Viking sort of way, in a way that actually complements the actual songs. These aren't songs fucked with or ruined or damaged by the by-choice ricketyness of their production process. They actually wouldn't be half as good without it. The album as a whole is a gem. The sort of gem that actually absorbs light rather than reflect it back at you so you can't quite see it except in cracks and if you squint at it hard enough or put different lights on it, recovered. Like a photo of that gem. But that's not to say that Women can't write songs. I defy anyone not to give their souls to the garage band total pop of 'Black Rice' forever and ever with its glockenspiel and girl-group drums. (which is all you ever need in a song, really, well not ever but you can certainly go a long way with just that as your mileage). On the whole though this is not really a song-based album. It's a coherent, 29-minute whole that you can either listen to or just let sort of drift by, and either option is pretty much good (though listening to it is best). You can miss a lot of it and it doesn't really matter, you still get some of the magic in you, and that's because of its light-reflecting qualities mentioned above. In fact, the only thing that is even remotely bad about this album is that it was released in America last year and so lots of people already have it, only come the end of this year it'll be on loads of end-year lists, causing confusion like The Hold Steady did a while back, or HEALTH. The Fuckes. Don't they even know how this whole process works? Well either way I'm totally jaded on the whole list system anyway, so what do I care? Get this before everyone else does and it just feels like the same old crap, or actually it probably won't because its nothing less than utterly masterful. 90%mp3:> Women: 'Back Rice' mp3:> Women: 'Group Transport Hall' Women on MySpace